World: Night in Macassar

Over Balikpapan on the east Borneo coast the smoke hung thick; flames
from the oil wells fired by the Dutch stabbed red into the murk. The
Japanese were closing in. Off the port in the Strait of Macassar a
great Japanese convoy stood, ready to move south toward Java. Before
the next dawn. Feb. 24, it had been slashed into gaping disorder in one
of the wildest naval raids in modern naval history.

In a great burst of overdue news about the desperate, last-ditch
struggle to hold the Dutch East Indies, the U.S. Navy last week told
the story in detail. Its...